Giants leave it late

Huddersfield Giants returned to the Super League top six after a 30-20 win at Salford thanks to 10 points in the last nine minutes.

A Michael Lawrence try and three Scott Grix goals finally saw off gutsy Salford, whose play-off hopes are over for another season.

The Giants, who beat Salford 36-10 at the Galpharm Stadium in March, were without Danny Brough and Castleford-bound Lee Gilmour but Joe Wardle returned from a 10-week absence.

Wardle had not played since suffering an abdominal injury in the Magic Weekend defeat by the Reds at the Etihad Stadium.

Salford had won their last two home matches against Huddersfield but were again forced to field a makeshift half-back pairing with Sean Long still unable return from retirement due to a thumb injury.

Forward Stuart Howarth partnered Daniel Holdsworth with Mark Sneyd also sidelined and Matty Smith now at Wigan.

Luke Robinson looked sharp from dummy half against his old club who lost Ashley Gibson after only five minutes with an arm injury.

Huddersfield went ahead after a burst by Jason Chan enabled Grix and Leroy Cudjoe to put Jermaine McGillvary over in the corner.

The Giants almost went further in front when Tommy Lee sent Eorl Crabtree bursting through but he was stopped short and then Grix was held up over the line.

Aaron Murphy just failed to gather a Lee kick with Salford on the rack in the early stages.

Lee then lost the ball over the line after a powerful Crabtree burst before Huddersfield were reduced to 12 men after 20 minutes when Cudjoe was sin-binned for a professional foul.

No surprise

It was no surprise when Lee's kick caused havoc in the Reds defence and Brett Ferres touched down for his first try for the club after signing from Castleford.

Grix's conversion stretched the lead to 10-0 before Salford opened their account.

Cudjoe was still in the sin-bin when Vinnie Anderson swept over from Luke Patten's pass with Holdsworth's conversion cutting the gap to 10-6.

But then Holdsworth and Anderson engineered a try for Jodie Broughton in the corner four minutes from the break to level the scores before Holdsworth landed the touchline conversion.

David Fa'alogo let the Reds off the hook by spilling a pass near the line to leave the Giants trailing 12-10 at half-time.

But Huddersfield regained the lead almost straight from the restart when Greg Eden dummied and went through.

Then Jason Chan's touchdown made it 20-12 after 47 minutes, before Danny Williams took Sean Gleeson's pass to give the Reds renewed hope with only four points the arrears after an hour.

Gleeson went over from dummy half to level the scores at 20-20 and the Reds would have gone ahead had Williams been able to take Holdsworth's pass.

Huddersfield regained the lead 22-20 with a Grix penalty for Patten's high tackle.

Michael Lawrence notched the Giants' fifth try with a Grix conversion and penalty sealing the win.